9.15.2014

I have finally decided to try out this 30 day shred I've heard so much about.

I was browsing through our holiday photo's and so many of them made me cringe,

all the ones I am in to be more precise!

You see I'm fat. Oh and I'm short. And I've got big breasts.

None of which work in my favour for looking slim.

but basically, I'm fat.

I could go on...and you could tell me I look fine...and we might just leave it at that.

But the truth is I don't feel fine.

I don't feel fine about the fact my jeans feel tight, or about the fact that lately I have to unbutton them when I sit down.

I also don't feel fine about being out of breath when I have to walk up the stairs quite fast...or speed walk after my kids when they cycle to school.

My wobbly arms and jelly belly...don't feel fine about them either.

And I definitely don't feel fine about that number on the weighing scale.

So yes. I'm doing the 30 day shred.

So far I've (only) done 3 days and it's HARD!!!

It's only 20 minutes a day. Not long at all.

But oh boy does Jillian make you work, sweat and feel pain!

There are three different levels to this workout and the idea is that you do ten days of each level.

Each level is circuit based with a mixture of cardio, strength and abs.

I'm finding it hard at the moment, the cardio especially is getting to me, even though it's only (ONLY) two minutes at a time. I'm hoping it will get better as the days go by and I'm hoping I will be able to do it without having to stop to catch my breath.

I woke up on day 2 feeling quite sore everywhere! Lifting my coffee cup in the morning was hard, today wasn't much better.

A sign of a good workout I guess.

Soon I'll feel stronger, healthier and hopefully slimmer for it!

Here's what I looked like after day 1 of the shred.

A hot sweaty mess.

Have you done the 30 day shred, thinking of doing it or have got any tips? I'd love to hear from you.

9.04.2014

Having grown up in Belgium I have always been very familiar with the little red biscuits.

For as long as I can remember we've always had them in the house, they usually came out at breakfast time (my dad loved to have them in between his sandwiches), at snack time (what child doesn't love these biscuits) and when we had family over they always made an appearance on the table.

Coffee and a Lotus biscuit are a must!

You can only imagine how excited I was when I found out Lotus had created a spread!

The spread is available in both smooth and crunchy varieties and we tried out the crunchy variety.

Holey Moley it is amazing!

It's like a biscuit in a jar.

I have caught myself a couple of times just eating it with a spoon from the jar, and the kids and husband were more than happy to do this as well.

This spread is so versatile and can be used in so many different ways. The smooth version can even be incorporated into dips, frostings and cakes!

Here are some ideas on how we used our crunchy spread.

On toast

I have been loving my breakfast these days. Cup of coffee, warm toast with Biscoff spread...yummy!

Milkshake

These are SO good! We blended together some vanilla ice cream, milk, a banana and two spoons of Biscoff spread. The result was a delicious milkshake that the kids loved and have been asking for again and again.

Lunchbox sandwiches

With school starting again and having one fussy eater my lunchbox dilemma's are now sorted.

Emily will happily munch her crunchy spread sandwiches and I no longer have to pull out my hair trying to figure out what to put on her sandwiches.

Spread on a cracker for a delicious mid morning snack

The kids love this snack and we found out it goes really well with chocolate spread, so most of the time they ended up sandwiching both crackers together. I loved adding some apple to my Biscoff cracker for even more crunch, yummy.

Lotus Biscoff caramelised spread is the perfect alternative to peanut butter and chocolate spread. It has NO added flavours, colours or hydrogenated fats and it is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

We were kindly send our Biscoff spread for reviewing purposes and all thoughts and opinions are our own.

9.03.2014

We had spend the week before in Belgium visiting family and friends and wanted to take advantage of already being on the mainland. So after a week of being really excited we finally left destination Paris. The drive itself was quite straight forward and including two stops took us just under 4 hours.

We arrived before 10 and immediately booked into our hotel which was Hotel Cheyenne.

I loved this western style hotel and the staff were all so friendly.

We couldn't actually check into our room until 3 pm so after booking our lunch and dinner at the hotel reception we headed straight for the parks.

The kids were so excited on the short bus ride over to the park.

Their faces were literally alight with excitement.

Once through the gates we walked toward the pretty castle where we visited the dragon cave.

Emily couldn't get enough of the dragon! He actually became a daily must to visit!

I'd forgotten to grab a map at the park entrance but did remember a great ride from a previous visit many years ago, Thunder Mountain.

The queue was about 40 minutes but actually went quite fast, there were just so many interesting things to see. We were lucky and got to sit at the very front of the runaway train, which was probably a good thing as the front moves a bit slower than the back, but oh boy did we move! As we climbed out of the ride Emily said she must have had a heart attack and dramatically announced she did not like fast rides.

As we continued walking we found ourselves near the Haunted Mansion.

Both kids did not like the look of the house or the "creepy music" but decided to go on anyway. The ride itself was great and the effects amazing but the kids weren't too convinced. Maybe a bit too scary for them.

Since we'd done two scary rides we thought it would be nice to do a few quieter things so we visited the Swiss Family Robinson's tree which was so cool and we also went on the Dumbo ride and It's a small world.

Afterwards Dylan and Simon went on Space Mountain, Emily was still too small so we explored Discovery land and then met them at the exit. Dylan's reaction to the ride was hilarious and he couldn't stop talking about it!

Time goes fast in Disneyland and before we knew it we had to head back to our hotel where we had booked our dinner. While we were there we also picked up our hotel key cards.

We had a bit of a problem with our first room (REALLY bad musky smell) but after informing the staff we got moved to a lovely new room. The kids were really excited about the bunk beds and all the Far West style decorations, yay!

As soon as dinner was finished, which was a lovely buffet with plenty of choice, we headed back to the parks. We decided to spend our evening at the Walt Disney Studios. The kids really wanted to go on the Ratatouille ride but the queue was 130 minutes!!! Fast passes weren't available anymore so we decided to leave that one for the next day.

We loved walking around the Disney Studios and so did the kids. Most of their favourite characters were there and the rides were pretty amazing too. Dylan loved the parachute drop and Emily the Slinky ride.

By the time we headed back to the hotel it was dark and the Studios Park was closing. We wanted to stay for the fireworks but we were all just way too tired.

After a nice rest we got up early to have breakfast which was at Mickey's cafe in The Village.

We surprised the kids with having breakfast with the characters, something we had kept a secret from them!

Dylan's face when we walked in and he noticed Mickey Mouse and the other characters was priceless.

Emily on the other hand was a bit starstruck and shy. She didn't dare go up to Mickey to have her photo taken. We also met Pluto and Tac the chipmunk. It was such a great experience and seeing the kids excited faces was the best!

After breakfast we headed back to the park where Simon walked around Fantasy land with the kids while I went to queue up to get a ticket to meet a princess. It was a bit of a wait but well worth it as we got to meet Snow White. Emily had already changed into her princess Anna's dress (her early birthday present) and Snow White was really pleased to meet a fellow princess.

It was quite funny actually because a lot of the staff members all over the park greeted Emily with "oh hello princess". We told Emily to curtsy every time someone greeted her and it was so cute.

After meeting Snow White we went back to the Disney Studios to pick up our Ratatouille fast passes and we ended up meeting Buzz Lightyear!

We were also just in time to see the Stars n Cars parade where the kids got to meet a few more characters. Pinocchio was the funniest and full of energy, he even gave Dylan a head rub!

We did a few more rides and the most amazing one was Crush's Coaster. What a ride!

Definitely a family favourite.

Something we definitely didn't want to miss was the Disney parade so we headed back to Main Street to get a good space and it was just so magical. Emily (or little Anna) even got a wave and wink from the real Anna, it made her day even more magical!

We had dinner at the Plaza Gardens in Main Street and I couldn't recommend it enough! It was buffet style and we were spoilt for choice. The staff were friendly and the kids loved it because it was a bit of a "fancy" restaurant, it made them feel very important.

After dinner it was finally time to go on our long awaited Ratatouille ride.

It is the parks newest ride and definitely worth the wait. It's all in 3D so you get to wear some funky glasses. The kids loved this ride, and so did we!

We left again as the park was closing and day 2 had been a very successful day.

We started day 3 by meeting Donald just outside our hotel! The kids said he gave the best cuddles as he was so soft.

We entered the park really early and we headed straight for Discovery land. I love those 2 extra hours hotel guests get as it's far less crowded and there are hardly any queues. In those 2 hours we went on Buzz's laser blast which was so much fun, the Orbitron, Autopia and Star Tours.

We then went back to Fantasy land to go on the Peter Pan ride, Pinocchio ride and Snow White's Forest ride.

In the afternoon we were lucky enough to meet some more characters, Captain Hook, Mr Smee, Peter Pan and Wendy. They were all so much fun to meet.

We then queue for the pirates of the Caribbean but just before we were about to get on the ride broke down, oh no! Not sure what had happened but everyone queueing up had to leave and the ride closed. Hmm, I wouldn't have liked to be the ones stuck at the top of the hill!

Later in the afternoon we also met Minnie and Rapunzel. Both meet and greets were happening at the same time in different locations so Simon and I split up . The queue for Minnie was shortest so I told the kids to stay with me to meet her first and we would then walk back to daddy to join him queueing for Rapunzel but Emily wasn't convinced and even after assuring her she wouldn't miss Rapunzel she still didn't want to chance it.

Dylan meeting Minnie was the cutest though and he even got a kiss from her!

We then rejoined Simon and Emily and met pretty Rapunzel who told us her hair took forever to brush.

I love how all the characters we met were so amazing! They all interacted with the kids so well, they all had their special little poses and mannerisms and they were all just perfect and really sweet.

It was nearing Parade time again so we decided to watch it one last time before heading back home.

8.20.2014

I love a good oven bake. Partly because they are so easy to make, I mean you just throw everything into ONE dish (less dishes to wash people!), and partly because they always end up tasting scrummy.

Yesterday I walked into the kitchen, recipe in mind, and when I went to get the potatoes there were only two teenie tiny ones left. Just like that I had to reinvent what I was going to make for dinner.

Sweet potato to the rescue!.

I don't know what it's like in your house but we love sweet potatoes, so this dish came together very effortlessly and was eaten very gratefully.

My ingredients were:

1 large sweet potato

3 carrots

1 green pepper and 1 yellow pepper

1 red onion

Olive oil (enough to coat all the veggies)

1 tbsp garlic salt

1tsp Herbs de Provence

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 Celsius

Cut all the vegetables in large chunks and add to oven dish

Coat with olive oil

sprinkle on garlic salt and herbs

stir together

bake in oven for about 30 minutes

I served our sweet potato bake with sweet chili chicken skewers and it was delicious!

8.19.2014

About two weeks ago we went to see How to train your dragon 2 at the cinema and ever since

Emily has been obsessed with anything dragon.

She has been begging us to go to McDonald's so she can collect the dragons in the Happy Meals, she's been watching videos on You tube where people show their dragon toys, the official how to train your dragon toys are on her wishlist and we've been watching the first movie and the TV series quite A LOT.

It's been quite cute hearing her play because she always appoints herself to be Stormfly or Toothless, the two most important dragons. Even when she's watching the cartoons she always announces this, just so we know...and probably also so her brother can't claim to be that particular character! It's funny actually, she does this with all her favourite TV shows, at one point or another she will shout out "I am Raven" (Teen titans Go) or "I am Pikachu" (Pokemon).

So the other day she was doing some drawing and she told me she made a drawing of what she wants to be when she grows up.

8.18.2014

They seem to be flying by this year. Before we know it the kids will be back in school, which reminds me that I really need to start getting organised and start ordering uniform bits and bobs, buy new school shoes, book bags and lunchboxes!

Phew, a lot to do still.

We have really enjoyed our holidays so far, even if the weather has been a bit unpredictable.

At the start of summer I came up with a summer schedule as I didn't want the kids to be stuck behind the computer, X-box or TV all day. I tell you they would happily do so if I'd let them!

I've noticed that my kiddies seem to thrive better when there is a bit of routine and structure to their day and they are quite happy to follow the schedule. One of their first worries was of course if they would still have time to play their beloved electronics games and there was a big sigh of relief when they found out they could!

They also know that the schedule is not something we absolutely have to stick to each day, or even each hour. As we all know life happens and we can't predict what each day will bring. We also don't use it over the weekend as we are usually quite busy and meet up with family.

So far this schedule has definitely helped our days go by smoothly!

We've had lots of fun playing games, I've had some help around the house and work for school is being done (yes, the kids were given homework over the summer).

Biggest hit on this schedule is the Friday movie night and it's definitely something we'll keep going long after the kids have gone back to school.

How has your summer been going so far, do you do something similar at your house?

Hello I'm Daisy, thanks so much for stopping by! I am a Belgian girl living in England. I'm married to Simon and we have two lovely kiddies, Dylan and Emily! I have decided to start this blog to remember all the little things we get up to as a family as well as to share some yummy recipes, a bit of fashion, lifestyle, parenting and even some creativity. So grab a cup of coffee, tea or something stronger and join me...Let's make some lovely memories!